St. Landry democrat., 1887-10-01
cure and prevent recurrence of the

evil. wv
The introduction of water into dwell
lngs and public buildings brought pest
Whlch IL IS easy to get rid of and easy to
keep clear OF, but which overruns hun
dreds OF private houses and public build
lngs, rendering them intoerable. 4
newspaper office was once upon a. time
not so very long ago visited by thou
sands or CrotOn monsters, who ran over
the paper upon which the editors were
writing and took other liberties too nu-
merous to mention. A couple of pounds
OF powdered boraX cleared the buil!inr
OF them entirely, and crude boray scat
tered here and there occasionally since
has kept that kind of intrudcrs at A dis.
lance. "How do you manage to keen
this place so clean?" was asked of a l,a,r-
gagemaster at one of the great drpot> in
New York recently which is remarkah)e
for its neat appearance, "Well. ma am
was the reply, II may say it's the work or
one man; he's as bad as woman. lie
follys the cleaners round. and he sec. 40
they does the work thorough; an he, al
ways putin some kind of stuff abOu, an
drenchin' the place with it. I've seen the
ground covered with things a-crawlin'
about afore he come, but we've never had
no such trouble sence" Good bOn>a-
keeping, you see, is not confined TO dwell
lngs, nor are these the only places where
it is necessary.
The oId-fashloned, square built, roomy
houses with their plain walls, tiled floors
and open tIre-places which carried off
doors and bad air were much more cleanlv
and conducive to cleanliness than our
narrow apartments and close, stutfv
rooms, overlad with ornamentation and
full OF all sorts of absorbent stutfs and
objects. If we insist upon having these
we must, also, in order to preserve
health, be willing to give time and,
trouble to keeping them freed from
poisonous limitations and exhalations.
A warm, confined and humid atmosphere
contains all the conditions for the
development of insect and malarial life
A lady living in the country was
taken i'll last July, and the in
disposition being obstinate, was sent
away from home. Absence restored he1,
but the same depression and nervous
ness-all her former symptoms, in short
reappeared soon after her return, and
her physician was batf1ed, his treatment
failing utterly to remove her maladv.
Being an intelligent man. he investigated
the conditions of the house, the drainage
and the like, but found them all right.
Walking up the path one day, he noticed
the hedge which surrounded the pretty
grounds and garden. 1t was choked
down to the ground with underground,
insect webs, and accumulatiOns of vari-
Gus kinds, so that not breath of clear
air could have gotten through. He was
struck with an idea, and asked permits
sion to have the whole cut away and the
spaces left for free circulation of air. The
operation revealed a condition of things
that was marvel to the owner and her
family. The grounds occupied about an
acre Three sides were inclosed BY this
hedge; at the back were stable, chicken
house, etc. In this Enclosure were colo
MES, towns, cities, continents of insect
life, all concealed and surrounded by
fungus growths, by gauzy webs and
draperies. which no one had ever thought
of,which had grown and increased year by
year until they had created the morbid
conditions to which the more sensitiv
organism became the victim. 1t tool
time, and care, and skill to effect the re-
moval of all this organic and inorganic
life, without creating more dangers and
annoyance, but it was effected finally.
The parasitic matter was cleared away,
the upper part of the hedge was pre-
served, but light and air came freely
where before had been foulness and cor
ruption. The sick woman soon recov-
cred, but it is safe to say that she will
never cease to wage war upon summer
pests.